Dec 31: New Year’s Eve

I could tell you about installing our new stove that arrived today, how I managed to borrow a saw from a Spanish speaking stranger, the heat here, or our trip around the barrio with my parents. But I won’t. I’ll tell you about our New Years celebration.

Fine Tuning the Stove Installation

We joined the lady two floors down who was hosting a mostly Dominican New Years Eve party. Having the kids grandparents here allowed Nicole and I to stay late and enjoy some of the festivities. Although there were lots of treats to snack on I think this was more of an American influence, as was watching a movie. The Dominican portion was definitely the loud music, the muchacha dancing lessons, and the fireworks.

The music wasn’t really that loud. With only a small stereo system we really couldn’t compete with the many local parties. Nonetheless, it was enough for everyone to try a little Latin dancing. Under some duress we had a little lesson on dancing the muchacha. Really, you can’t teach white people to dance Latin dances properly. You have to move your hips in ways we just can’t do. It was actually a lot of fun, although Nicole won’t admit it. We have paid the photographer to destroy the photos.

At midnight the celebrations included a round of drinks, a lot of cheering and hugging of strangers, and of course some fireworks. The local’s will go from house to house wishing everyone a Happy New Year, stranger or not (sometimes the alcohol does the talking though). The fireworks were important enough to send a motorcycle taxi driver to town to pickup a few extra sticks just around midnight. It was rather humorous reading the “Do not hold, spectators should stand 25m back” warning just before they were lit and held up in the air only a few feet from us. I’ve now learned, from others experiences, that (a) the sparks aren’t hot enough to light clothing on fire and (b) you should look away from the firework just as it launches.

The firecrackers are insanely loud and every one sent Nicole jumping into the air. Even now, at 2:30 in the morning from the 3rd floor, some are going off and they still reverberate through my body.